Images of Decay: Photography in the Picturesque Tradition
Author(s): Wolfgang Kemp and Joyce Rheuban
Source: October, Vol. 54 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 102-133
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778671 .
Accessed: 12/09/2014 11:18
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
The MIT Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to October.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Images of Decay: Photography
in the Picturesque Tradition*
WOLFGANG KEMP
TRANSLATED
BY JOYCE
RHEUBAN
One of our mostremarkableculturalacquisitions,surely,is our capacityfor
an aestheticattractionto objects and situationsthatdocumentdecay. When I say
"our," I am also qualifyingmy statement.This dispositiontoward images of
decay cannot be generalized in a simplisticfashion.It depends in large degree
upon other aesthetictraditionsthat have to do withparticularcircumstancesof
education, social position,and of the cultural sphere. Three hundred years of
Westernpaintinghad taughtus to perceiveand appreciatesignsof decay, of age,
even scenes of neglectand impoverishmentfroma distancedperspective.Then
photographytook up thistask--and withsuch eagerness and sense of purpose
that we may assume there was somethingabout it that was, and is, of special
concern to photography'sown interests.
Decay was not always considered an appropriate subject for painting.On
the contrary,at a time when no less than nine-tenthsof the population lived
outside as much as inside sod, thatch,and wooden structures,and the fewstone
structuresin the cities rose from muddy, filth-coveredstreets and a nest of
squalid shops,shacks,and stalls,it was the taskof paintingto depict magnificent,
ornamentedstone structures,withstreetsand squares paved withbeautifulmarble slabs, gardens,and smooth,uniformbrickwork.These tidy,alwaysfinished
interiorsand exteriorsof the finestmaterialsare familiarfrom the time that
paintinggave up the language of the symbolicand dedicated itselfto the description of possible ensembles of elements-that is, since Giotto. Dilapidated or
unfinishedsubjects do have a symbolicsignificance;in the artisticrealm of the
artifact,theyinevitablysymbolizethe idea of evil or of somethingwhichhas been
conquered. The onlyway the picturesof perfectionwhichappeared afterGiotto
could be called realistic would be to regard them as an architect's utopian
sketches.Even Dutch paintingof the fifteenth
centurydid not depict realityas it
was, but the potentialperfectionof reality,realityas it should be.
This is a translationof "Bilder des Verfalls: Die Fotographie in der Tradition des Pittores*
ken," from Wolfgang Kemp's Foto-Essays (Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 1978), ?
1978
Schirmer/Mosel.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
.SO-:i:--:-::l
u..:.:
.........
...i::;
.:.:-_:ii~i:-'-i~iCi-:::?
l
W
....
..........
......
..i_: _:''''"
.......
.
......
...
.
-"i: ::: :::Ei
............
..
-:::::
:::pro:
::1:-M
-::----:;-:::
...................i
:.
ME
"IRA
i:::-:iizi-:?:
03iiiii
.........
r~i
ieiiiii
Hui
i-iiiiii~~~iiii
- M
::-::::::'''iiii
IN
ox.i
,
"MO
N
.
: .':iii
iiiiiI
tSOMA~
--P..
5pll
vallivsa-Why.
-?:-:--:;---::-:::::
:::::-:::::
?::?;::2:-::;:::::::
?:-i::j9...........
::1::--:i-:i--i~-i-i
..~-~i~
.iii:ii-iii
J..
_
:-:--iii:Aki~
i-:::::::
::::
::-:l:ii
l~-:--:-~~~i
~~
::::::::::
1::::::i'p
?iv-iiiii:i
-:
:_-.--i:_--.:
_-;:..:.:
g
i.:-i
iii~i-iii-i?:i~~j?,j
"----?---,i&iii~:iiiii-'~:~ii
M
.,,
~?---ii_:-:-2:ii
,,;,~iii-ii
I-:i:i~ii~i.--~~_
m
'iiii
::::::i
ooi~??::-:?'
':::i:-l:--::-:-:----':::::j::i~iaiIii:
::::I::----:::lii~iii~j-iiiii
;,~i:~-i-..
n
iiiijiwo
m
u
---:
::
i:-l~_--ii-.--::...'i1-:-'::
-::::
g
iiiiii----:
-:_-ii.--~-iiii:~::--:
:-::-'~'i.~~us::
Mo
ons SOL
i,
ii
i--i:
:i:-:l:::--:-::-:
2:2:::::
::i:''
:::::
Al
i-:::::-:::
::::::i~ci
~~-i:-is.::
-~~i
i?~
lii-:.:::i
sii-iiiiiilii
lk
::-_:::-:
jr-;
?-:5
W:::::
:::::
-::-::`-:::---_-:-:
---..:
-Inns,
::::1:
MNBC:::
iii
iiiiii:ii,:L~
:::::::
r
Mg::::t%
:
.'.::::-:??:
.:.iii:.r::
:~~~?
4ziiii~?:~:
INI
AnselAdams.Window, Bear Valley,California.1973.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
104
OCTOBER
One must thereforeconclude that in the period of the fourteenthto sixteenth centurieswhat was considered "painterly"was that which was finished,
splendid, and clean. The question of how it came about that shabby beggars,
ruins, and crooked alleys became the embodimentof the painterlycannot be
undertaken in the present essay. We note, nevertheless,a turn in this new
direction,or, better,a broadening of the aestheticspectrumin the seventeenth
century.Referringto Rembrandtand his students,Jan de Bisshopcomplainedin
1699 thatan old, wrinkledman, a ramshacklehouse, a beggar, or a peasant was
regarded as more painterly(more apt fordepiction)than a vigorousyoungman,
a new house, a nobleman, or a king. If this attitudewere to became standard
practice,sneered de Bisshop, then everythingthat had formerlybeen banished
fromview would now be regarded as special,as the sanctifiedsubject of painting
and drawing.' All the effortsof the classiciststo stemthesetendencieswere to no
avail. In the eighteenthcentury,the painterly,the picturesque- which had
previouslybeen regarded as a technicaltermin the studiosand in the literature
on art- establisheditselfas an aestheticcategoryin itsown right,alongside the
beautifuland the sublime.2
The great theoreticiansof the picturesquewere the English. It is they,the
Englishlanded gentryand art enthusiastsamong the bourgeoisie- dilettantesin
gardening,painting,and drawing- whom we must thank for endless volumes
on the subject.The termpicturesque
today,of course, means more thanthe small
we
think
of the picturesqueas anythingespecially
ruins.
area
of
subject
Today
well suited forreproductionin painting,whereasthe eighteenth-century
theoreticiansthoughtof it as a specifictraditionof painting:the rugged landscapesand
ragged shepherdsof Pietro Mola and Salvatore Rosa, Tiepolo's "Capricci," with
their classical ruins and scenerypeopled with Arcadian figures.From this,the
irregular,unevenly
picturesquebecame generalizedto thatwhichis multifarious,
lit, worn, and strange. Everythingthat appeared smooth,bright,symmetrical,
new, whole, and strong,on the other hand, was placed in the categoriesof the
whateverwas
beautifulor the sublime.Accordingto thissystemof classification,
in the processof decay was potentiallypicturesque,because one could detectin it
The beautiful,deduced
more, and more obvious, signsof wear and irregularity.
one theoretician,depends "on ideas of youthand freshness,"while the picturesque depends "on those of age, and even decay."s Lists were compiled of
en de regelsVan de Kunst(Utrect:Haentjens Dekker
Cited inJan AmelingEmmens,Rembrandt
1.
and Grumbert,1968), p. 125.
The literatureon the subject of the picturesquehas since greatlyincreased. Three collections
2.
on the subjectare: ChristopherHussey,ThePicturesque:Studiesin a PointofView(Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1967); Walter John Hipple, The Beautiful,theSublimeand thePicturesquein
BritishAesthetic
Theory(Carbondale: Southern IllinoisUniversityPress, 1957); and
Eighteenth-Century
Carl Paul Barbier, William Gilpin: His Drawings,Teachingand Theoryof thePicturesque(Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1963).
Sir Uvedale Price, Essay on thePicturesque(1794), cited in Hipple, The Beautiful,theSublime
3.
and thePicturesque,p. 210.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in thePicturesqueTradition
ImagesofDecay:Photography
105
picturesquesubjects: "Willows,old rottenplanks,slimyposts,and brickwork,I
love such things,"wroteJohnConstable in a letterof 182 1.4 "Gothic cathedrals
and old mills,gnarledoaks and shaggygoats,decayed carthorsesand wandering
gypsies,"are recommendedby another author,5who rounds out the list with:
well-wornpaths throughfieldand forest,embankmentsand sluicescovered with
moss; and above all, backyardnooks filledwithjunk, crude thatchedcottages,
and ramshacklecabins.
The principleof the picturesquepresenteda fundamentalproblemforthe
aestheticof the eighteenthand nineteenthcenturies.We live at a timein which
the highestaim of art is not to disengage itselffromsuch notionsas perfection
and suitability,or such functionsas moral enlightenmentand edification.The
of the aespicturesque,on the contrary,is based on an over-functionalization
thetic.The firstconflictsarose over where the picturesqueshould be realized.
4.
John Constable,MemoirsoftheLifeofJohnConstable,ed. Charles Robert Leslie and Andrew
Shirley(London: The Medici Society,Ltd., 1937), p. 118.
5.
Hipple, The Beautiful,theSublimeand thePicturesque,p. 210, describingPrice's Essay on the
Picturesque.
JohnConstable.East BergholtChurch. c. 1817.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
106
OCTOBER
The landed gentry,who would gladly arrange their environmentaccording to
painterlyprescriptions,were tempted to preserve the broken-downhouses in
theirvillagesin thispainterlycondition.Sir Uvedal Price, author of Essayson the
Picturesqueof 1794, warned these enthusiasticaesthetesagainst thisby reminding them that moralitymust take precedence over the principleof the picturesque.6 But Lord Price's publisher,Thomas Dick Lauder, was not in complete
agreementwithsuch a clear-cutdistinctionbetweenmoralityand aesthetics.For
Lauder, it was understood,for example, that a thatchedroof would no longer
do. But tile roofs, though they certainlysatisfiedbuilding requirements,were
aestheticonlyifthe roofinclinedsteeply.The best way,Lauder suggested,would
be to cover the roof with tiles,and, in addition, overlay that with picturesque
thatching.William Gilpin, a countryclergymanby profession,was one of the
most importanttheoreticiansof the picturesque.Gilpin makes a similardistinction between industriousfactoryworkers,who presenta picturethat is morally
pleasingbut not one thatis suitablefora painting,and idlyloiteringpeasantsas
the only figuresthat satisfythe aestheticrequirementsof those who seek the
appeal of the picturesque.7
Most commentatorson the picturesque avoided difficulties
and doubts of
thissort,however,refrainingfromany discussionof the fundamentalissuesthey
suggested.JohnRuskinwas the onlyexceptionto thisrule; he led the firstattack
on the picturesque witha critique that is stillvalid today. Ruskin criticizedthe
wayin which,"in a completelypicturesqueobject,as an old cottageor mill,there
are introduced,by various circumstancesnot essentialto it, but, on the whole,
generallysomewhat detrimentalto it as cottage or mill . . . elementsof sublimity. . . belongingin a parasiticalmannerto the building."8The impression
of painterlinessarises from"merelyoutward delightfulness,"whichhas littleor
nothingto do withthe thingitselfand, indeed, actuallydivertsus fromthe thing
itself.Thus, the thatchedroof of a cottage is perceived as painterlywhen it is in
such a stateof disrepairthatit remindsone of a craggyrock formation.To look
for the picturesque is to engage, in a literal sense, in superficialperception.
Ruskinneverthelessrejectspurelyaestheticapperception:it is the purpose of art
to teach us "to see and feel." For Ruskin,limitingone's perceptionof art to a
purelypainterlyaspect signifiesan abandonmentof one's own engagementwith
humanity.Ruskin calls this "heartless":
In a certainsense, the lower picturesqueideal is eminentlya heartless
one: the lover of it seems to go forthinto the world in a temper as
6.
Ibid., p. 220; cf. p. 361.
7.
Francis Donald Klingender,Artand theIndustrialRevolution,ed. and rev. ArthurElton (New
York, Schocken Books, 1970).
and Critical TheoriesofJohn Ruskin(Princeton:
8.
Cited in George P. Landrow, The Aesthetic
PrincetonUniversityPress, 1971), p. 225. Landrow givesan excellentaccount of the generalsubject
areas in Ruskin's work.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in thePicturesqueTradition
ImagesofDecay:Photography
107
mercilessas its rocks. . . . The shatteredwindow,opening into black
and ghastlyrentsof wall,the foulrag or strawwispstoppingthem,the
dangerous roof,decrepitfloorand stair,ragged miseryor wastingage
of the inhabitants-all these conduce each in due measure, to the
fullnessof his satisfaction.What is it to him that the old man has
passed his seventyyears in helpless darkness and untaughtwaste of
soul? The old man has at last accomplishedhis destiny,and filledthe
corner of a sketch, where something of an unshapely nature was
wanting.9
Thus, one concludes, according to Ruskin, that the picturesque demands a
perception of realitythat only functionswhen all associationswith utilityand
morality,along withhistoricaland politicalissues,are kept out of consideration
for the sake of aestheticeffect.
Ruskin wrote this critique in the mid-1850s, about eightyyears after the
formulationof the great theoriesof the picturesque.This was a time when this
artisticprinciplewas stillprevalent,above all, in European landscape painting
and in the artisticpracticeof dilettantes.It was also a timewhenphotographywas
keeping the preferenceforpicturesquethemesalive. Before examiningthe first
encounters of photographywith the picturesque, we will brieflyconsider the
matterof its continuouspopularity.Two reasons,above all, have been responsible for this success.
1. Because it is more demandingto value somethingworn or decayed than
like
to
wholeness,whatsparkles,whatis acknowledgedas beautiful,a preference
for the picturesque must be regarded as a sure sign of good taste and aesthetic
training.In a sense, the picturesque provides a test of whetherthe spectatoris
always able to assume the perspective of "disinterestedpleasure" that Kant
designatedas a preconditionof the aestheticattitude.Cultivationof the picturesque also indicated the possession of a heightened aesthetic culture and was
therebya means of distinguishingoneself socially. The admirer of the picturesque sets himselfapart fromthe standardsof taste of the average consumerof
art. He adopts a distanced relation to the object of his look by consciously
disregardingthe object's utilitarianvalue.
2. Theoreticians of the picturesque often take pains to legitimatetheir
approach witha sentencefromCicero: "Quam multavidentpictoresin umbrisetin
eminetia,quae nos non videmus."("Painters see much in shadow and lightthatwe
do not see.") Focusingone's attentionon the picturesquemeans being attunedto
a certain appeal that remains inaccessible to everydayperception. The picturesque offersno ready symmetries,no easily identifiablecompositionalschemes.
The picturesqueis the art of small,hidden aestheticqualities. Recognizingand
appreciatingthese qualities is an importantachievementfor the adepts of the
9.
John Ruskin,ModernPainters(London: J. M. Dent and Co., 1906), pp. 9-10.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
108
OCTOBER
picturesque,perhaps even the decisiveachievementin the processof learningto
see. In short, the picturesque is also a didactic principle. From its detached
perspective,it identifiesspecificaesthetic conditionsas well as ways of seeing
them in the everydayworld. This pedagogical intentionof the principleof the
picturesquewas not always adhered to in its implementation,for instructionin
the picturesque was frequentlyreduced to checklistsof picturesque conditions
and objects, like those cited above. Yet these compilationsof elements,which
could easily be learned, were the verybasis for the success of the picturesque.
Whetherpainterlysubjects came before the firstcameras intentionallyor
unintentionallycannot always be firmlyestablished. At first,the early photographsfixedeverythingin the picturefroma greatdistance,includingdirt,holes
in the masonry,or a broken window. "A crack in the plaster,a witheredleaf
lyingon a projectingcornice,or an accumulationof dust in a hollowmouldingof
a distantbuilding,when theyexist in the original,are faithfully
copied in these
wonderfulpictures,"'0 commentedJohn Robinson in 1839, the year in which
Daguerre made the photographicprocess known to the public. The same year,
Alexander von Humboldt wrote about Carus: "One drawing[!] encompassed a
buildingin a space of about three-quartersof an inch. You could see in
five-story
- what smallness!!- was broken
thispicturethat one of the panes in a skylight
over
had
been
covered
with
and
paper."" Contemporaryobserverswere astonished that all these details had been recorded so impartially.
When we look at earlyphotographstoday,we are amazed, even shocked,by
how seedy,dirty,and neglectedmanyof those scenesare. This applies to ruralas
well as urban scenes. The decay of the Parthenonsculpturesduringthe present
centurywas recentlydocumented in an alarming fashionby a comparison of
photographstaken over the years. Yet, when we look at the photographsof
Baldus, Le Secq, Le Gray,and othersfromthe 1850s, the picturetheypresent
of the conditionof French culturalmonumentsfromthe period prior to monumentpreservationisjust as disturbing.These photos can onlymean thatphotographers did not have far to look for signs of decay-they were everywhere.
Environmentalpollution is not only a contemporaryproblem. The conditions
thatthesephotographsof the 1840s and '50s conveyto us- the unpaved streets
and squares, the unspeakable dirt and excrementthat litteredthe streets,the
neglectedexteriorof the old townand villagecenters- all are an indicationof a
realitythat had remained virtuallyunchanged since the Middle Ages. In the
nineteenthcentury,however,in additionto this,came new,less easilydiscernible
sources of dirtand poison, of human misery,and new objects and situationsof
decay. Were these also new subjects for photography?
10. Cited in Beaumont Newhall, "Photographyand the Development of Kinetic Visualization,"
TheJournaloftheWarburgand CourtauldInstitutes
(1944), p. 40.
zur Geschichte
der Fotografie
11.
(Munich: Schirmer/Mosel,
WolfgangBaier, Queilendarstellungen
1977), p. 116.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in thePicturesqueTradition
ImagesofDecay:Photography
109
When the earlyphotographersconsciouslysoughtpicturesquescenes,they
observed the prescriptionsand rules of the relevanttreatises.In The Pencil of
Nature (1844), Talbot shows us two views of Queens College in Oxford, not in
order to displayits dilapidated condition,but to presenta pictureof a famous
building-that is, to take the opportunityto illustratethe applicabilityof photographyto architecturalreproduction.To this end, he selectsa photographic
point of view of his subject-one which an architecturalpainter would never
take. When Talbot arrangesostensiblypainterlyscenes,he understandshis work
as a continuationof the workof the Dutch or Englishpainterswho were identifiedwiththe genre of the picturesque.His studyThe OpenDoor, whichdepictsa
broom leaningagainsta weathered,stone doorjamb, explicitlylinksTalbot with
the Dutch school, whichwas famousforthe way in whichthe "painter'seye will
oftenbe arrestedwhereordinarypeople see nothingremarkable.A casual gleam
of sunshine,or a shadow thrownacross his path, a time-witheredoak, or a
moss-coveredstonemayawaken a trainof thoughtsand feelings,and picturesque
imaginings."'2Talbot's reliance upon standard artisticpractice was therefore
12. WilliamHenry Fox Talbot, ThePencilofNature(1844; reprinted., New York: De Capo Press,
Dutch Paintingand
1969), n. p. Cf. "Notes on AestheticRelationshipsbetweenSeventeenth-Century
History:Essaysin Honor of
Nineteenth-Century
Photography,"in One Hundred YearsofPhotographic
BeaumontNewhall,ed. Van Deren Coke (Albuquerque: Universityof New Mexico Press, 1975),
p. 19.
"i211::i:-r:---:-:,:,*:
: ., . t--.::
:__-::::::::--:i
-:--.--_:
: ::-::i
::-"::'::
:::::: ::?s-:_-.s-::-_-'::::
:::_~:i:-_--_:--:-?i:-::_::
--::
b---:--:-_-_?
..-:ii~
Ki-----W-iiii"i-'?ii-j.
i,
::
::
:i'iiit
--
-~liI_
I~?:9
i,~s~?
iL:ii:-ii
. ..::
: ::::
~ioi:i~-:
-i.iii:~::~
:::::::ll!ili
:
:~--:::-::::
----:-liiw_-'-,-iiii~
---:::-:--::?2
-:-::i:_:
.:-..-.
:-::-:--:?-:s::
--:--8i
-?i5i:-::.:i.i.
i:i,::--::?
' -:-----::?ii-jiil-:i
~i,~il~
;::::::'i:::-:::::_:,a:,:ji:i:ilii~:l::-:::::::
::?'-:
-:::?--:'i:-i:r:i
.:::_:::::
::::::':
::-:~:::-~i:_:-:;::
::::~x:::-i
:~~i~-iaii::~Bir~::::::j::
:-::::::ii~i
:::?:
-::-:_::::::::
:.:ii:-i:iii:":::::::::
::::~::::?:;::-;
~ i-i"
:r
.:
".:
r::
C_:i::EI_:-:,:i:_i
:.-i::::''i
--:-:-::
-:::i'? :: ::~ :::: :
ii;:iii-i-iiiiiiiiisi?:
iiiii-i:-i~:l:?~_,-:-i:-is:i:i-i:
i:--i
i-a:
-::-iliii::iiiiQi~iii-:iiiii~:i
-:::--ii:ii.:~k~
:;:ijl::;_:-::::
::~:;:iib--i-":--:
i-iOi?: :-i_
::i--i-i.
-::ii~i:
i:ii-:;l:_-::
: ::
:-:-:
WilliamTalbot.The Open Door. 1844.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
~i~~~ii~iii~
110
OCTOBER
intentionaleven though he did not adhere to it dogmatically.It never would
have occurred to him to limit photographyto the production of picturesque
images. This restrictionwas not attempteduntilthe 1860s when, thanksto the
introductionof the wet collodiumprocess,a large numberof dilettanteswho had
previouslypracticed the conventional techniques of drawing and watercolor
became interestedin photography.
We encounter the entire repertoireof the English lay aestheticin Henry
in Photography
of 1869. This texttakesa decisive
Peach Robinson'sPictorialEffect
position:
It is an old canon of art, that every scene worthpaintingmust have
somethingof the sublime, the beautiful,or the picturesque. By its
nature, photographycan make no pretensionsto representthe first,
but beauty can be representedby its means, and picturesquenesshas
never had so perfectan interpreter.'3
This sentenceappears in the chapteron "The Facultyof ArtisticSight." Robinson wants to teach the reader the most importantrequirementfor becoming a
good photographer- the abilityto perceivethe beauties and picturesqueeffects
in objects and in settings"which othersoverlook withoutnoticing."He wantsto
teach the skillof seeing the artisticallysignificantsubject and the artisticimage
that resides withinit.
Two yearsbeforeRobinson,A. H. Wall had alreadytakena similarposition
in an essay entitled,"On Taking Picturesque Photographs":
No two trees or rocks are alike; lightand shade changes with every
hour of the day, and witheverysuch change the scene becomes a new
one; differenteffectsof atmosphere produce the most rapid and
entirechanges in the appearances of naturalobjects. A scene whichis
tame and uninterestingnow may become picturesque and beautiful . . . when the flyingclouds may have cast parts into shade, leaving other parts in brilliantlight.'4
Wall and Robinson caution theirreaders against expectinggood picturesfrom
familiarsubjects,and warn thatpicturesquesubjectsdo not in themselvesguarantee that picturesque photographswill be made from them. In a sense, the
picturesqueis everywhere,since it is not a matterof an objective condition,but
of camera position,of the rightmoment,of framing.According to Wall:
The finestand mostbeautifully-varied
sceneryin the worldmaymake,
and does commonlymake, the most uninterestingphotographs,simin Photography
13.
(1869; reprinted., New York: Arno
Henry Peach Robinson, PictorialEffects
Press, 1973), p. 15.
Cited in Michael Hiley, Frank Sutcliffe,
14.
(Boston: D. R. Godine, 1974),
ofWhitby
Photographer
p. 100.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in thePicturesqueTradition
ImagesofDecay:Photography
111
ply because the photographerknowingnothingof the picturesquein
eitherart or nature has neitherchosen his point of view,his lightand
shade, nor his atmosphericeffectwitha proper care.15
Advice such as this fell on deaf ears among amateur and professional
photographersalike. At any rate, we have to assume thisto be the case when we
observe thatthisdiscussionwas pursued no furtherduringthe remainderof the
nineteenthcentury.As in the past, photographerssought the picturesquein its
objective form.And, as in the past, theirtutorsrecommended the artisticrendering of inconspicuoussubjects. In Whitby,for example, a mecca for English
photographers,one photographed only the ruins of the old abbey. Frank Sutcliffe,who lived in Whitbyand who took more picturesof itsharborscenes,back
alleys,and fishermenthan of its famoussights,wroteabout the obsessionwitha
single motifin 1890:
Is it because we have been so in the habitof going onlyforthe labeled
alert and our senses properly
objects thatour eyes are not sufficiently
tuned to respond to the greater charms of the rarer beauties? The
man who labeled all these old ruins "picturesque" in the firstcase
could not have knownthata picturemusthave a pattern.And it is this
patternmost of them lack. It is thispattern,or pleasing combination
of line and mass, that the artistconsidersof greaterimportancethan
any historicalfactswhichmaybe foundin his subject,and he does not
hesitateto sacrificethe latterto the former.16
Sutcliffe,who, incidentally,bore the impressivetitle "Photographer to Mr.
Ruskin," therebyconfirmedonce more the core of thatdefinitionof the picturesque which had been criticizedby his one-timementor--the primacyof the
aestheticover all historical,political,and social implications.
Nevertheless,it would be wrong to dismissthe interestin the picturesque
on the part of nineteenth-century
photographyas mere aestheticism.Originally
and the destroyed,
photography,whichespoused the charmsof the insignificant
collaborated in the great artisticproject of the nineteenthcenturyknownas the
"democratizationof the subject." In 1894, Sir Howard Grubb, Presidentof the
PhotographicConventionof the United Kingdom,interpretedthe development
of photographysince 1839 in termsof thisprocess of democratization:
In the early days of photographya photographernever thought it
worthhis while to point his camera to any object that had not some
particularinterestconnected withit. ... what photographerof that
time would have thoughtof wastinghis plates (as it would have been
15.
16.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 101.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
112
OCTOBER
considered) in pointinghis camera at those littlebits of moor or fen,
or some namelessbrook, out of whichthe modern photographerhas
produced his most exquisite pictures?'7
We must not regard the aestheticappreciation of the trivial,remote, and unknownas a mere side effectof the realisticmovement.The picturesquesensibilityaccomplishedmuch more--above all, it performeda pioneeringservice for
art with a socially critical program by helping to moderate and, ultimately,
repudiate the hierarchygoverning subject matter and modes of expression.
Withinthe contextof effortssuch as these,though not necessarilyto thisend, a
formof photographydeveloped that was less interestedin the attractivenessof
the painterlysubject than in the reasons foritspainterliness.In one respect,this
pioneeringeffectestablishedthe significanceof the principleof the picturesque
in the historyof photography.In another respect, it helped to prepare the
process wherebythe structuresof the object would become the structuresof the
image. In the second part of this essay, I show how the subjectiveselection of
slices of reality,whichoriginallypurportedto be evidence of the personal point
of view of the observer,later developed into a displayof autonomous compositionalstudies.In termsof the definitiongiven above, the picturesqueis simplya
matterof optical/subjectivepositioning.When, in the formof weatheredplanks
of wood, crumblingmasonry,or furrowedtree trunks,the picturesquerequiresa
closer view, the tendencyseems almost inevitablyto be to abandon the objects
themselvesin favorof the "pattern" (Sutcliffe).
Four differentapproaches of photographyto the theme of decay will be
examined in the pages thatfollow.They maybe consideredessentiallyahistorical
options because theylay out, in a distinctform,the problematicof the picturesque as a photographicsubject. Various epochs in the historyof photography
are indicatedin all foursegments.The widelyvaryinglengthsof the treatmentof
each of these four approaches is not a reflectionof qualitativestandardsnor of
the quantitativedisseminationof the individualtypes.
1. Afterall that has been said thus far, we may begin this typologywith
those worksthat are concerned only with the superficialappeal of objects in a
picturesque state of decay. This type need only be considered brieflysince its
primarymotifshave already been identified,and individualinstancesare highly
consistentwiththese. This variationon the themeof decay willcome up again in
subsequentsegments,as it does throughoutthisessay,as a basis forcomparison.
The old, gnarled,bristlytree has been
The topicstree and wall are itsleitmotifs.
one of the privilegedsubjects of picturesque art at least since the eighteenth
century.These images move us stilltodaythroughtheirdepictionof the magnificence of the natural monument and the power of time. Nineteenth-century
17.
Ibid., pp. 101-102.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Paul Nash. Detail of a Tree Trunk. c. 1939.
photographerssometimesapproached theirsubject so closelythatthe only outward signsof the tree's age were the cracksand crevicesof the bark. Close-up
studies of this kind can be seen earlier in works by Constable. Toward midcentury,theseclose studiesturnup increasinglyin the workof Englishlandscape
artistsand in the genre of realisticFrench landscape art,whichhad preferredto
keep its treesat middle distance,where theywould serveas an enclosingdevice
or as the centralfocus of an intimatelandscape.
Gustave Le Gray was the firstto photographtrees in a systematicway. In
the 1850s, he made a seriesof photographsin the forestof Fontainebleau.These
photos focused primarilyon the trunksand the networksof branches of old,
gnarled trees as a way of foregroundingtheirpicturesquequality.'" One may
regard the innumerablestudiesof treesby Atget,whichare similarlypositioned
at close range and sometimestakenat the same location,as a directcontinuation
of the studiesby Le Gray.'9A comparisonof a drawingof a treetrunkby Menzel
and a photographby Paul Nash of the same subject--images separated by an
FromtheCollectionof
18.
Cf., for example, Niepce to Atget,in The FirstCenturyofPhotography:
(Exhibitioncatalog, Chicago, 1977), pp. 80, 82.
Andr6Jammes
19. The complete set of Atget'stree seriesstillawaitspublication.See John Szarkowski,"Atget's
Trees," in Coke, ed., One Hundred Years,p. 161.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
OCTOBER
114
Brassai. Wall of a House, fromGraffiti.
After1932.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in thePicturesqueTradition
ImagesofDecay:Photography
115
interval of sixtyyears- supports the supposition of photography'senduring
fascinationwithpicturesquesubjectsthroughthe influenceof painterlythemes.
As the example of Paul Nash reveals,detailed viewssuch as these also served as
stimulifor artisticfantasy.Nash read formal allusions as well as allusions to
content-to the demonic, to Alrauns, etc.-into decomposing logs, knobby
roots,and dried-outdriftwood.Nash's intentionto investhis photographswith
allusions is clear in the way these objects are presented, in the titles of the
photographs,and in the anecdotal use he makes of the figurationsof his found
objects. Anotherartisticconsequence of thisclose examinationof the attraction
of materialswas its direct quotation in collage and frottage."I was surprisedat
how irresistibly
myeyes were drawn to the grooves engraved in the floorfroma
thousandscrubbings,and how thisirritatedme."20This is how Max Ernstbegins
his account of the discoveryof frottage.
Along with the weathered grain of trees, floors,and walls, the stone wall
also
be included as a classic catalystof formalmeaning. In thisregard, one
may
need onlyrecall Leonardo's recommendationof a thoroughstudyof the surfaces
of walls,advice whichhas not only not been forgottenin the historyof art, but
has, indeed, been eagerlypursued in the newer formsof non-objectiveart.21In
the historyof photography,Leonardo's lesson was revivedby Brassai,who, after
1932, pursued the "inspirationof the walls" and documented the natural and
artificialalterationsof the walls of Paris in his Grafittiseries.
Of all these media that intervenebetween what is real and what is
dreamed, the wall is withouta doubt the richestsource of inherent
images. To begin with,beneath its outer coat, the wall, built up of
sand, mortar,plaster . . . isjust like a surfaceprepared forpainting,
waitingforthe breath of creation. It anticipatesa lifefullof changes.
No sooner have the plastererand the whitewasherfinishedtheirwork,
than the wall is given over to the work of deterioration. . . . Every
elementaffectsand assailsthe impressionable,grainyplastercoat. The
frostscontractit, the heat stretchesit, the humidityswells it. Wind,
smoke,gasses,rain mold it withsoot and dirt.The color beginsto peel
offand earlier layersof color show through. . . . Scarcely visibleat
first,thesealterationsbecome more and more noticeable,and, finally,
the original wall is barely recognizable. The plaster coat is furrowed
witha networkof crevices,cracks,and fractures.The wall is covered
by fissuresand gaping wounds. All that remains to complete the
Cited byJ. Wissmann,"Collagen oder die Integrationvon Realitiitim Kunstwerk,"in Imma20.
nenteAsthetik
und iisthetische
ed. W. Iser (Munich: W. Frank, 1966), p. 347.
Reflexion,
Cf. ibid. and H. W. Janson, "The 'Image Made by Chance' in Renaissance Thought," De
21.
ArtibusOpsula XL: Essaysin Honor ofErwinPanofsky,
ed. Millard Meiss (Zurich: Buehler Buchdruck,
1960).
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
116
OCTOBER
"picture" are the fortuitousnicks,children'sscribbling,heavy-handed
brushstrokes,scrawled lettering,and leftoverscraps of posters.22
What Picasso is sayinghere is: time,nature,the wall make the "picture." No art
formis more qualified,therefore,thanphotographyto preservethesepicturesin
their "incomparable beauty." The photographer may not only boast of the
privilegedstatusaccorded his art by Picasso, he can also, almost patronizingly,
cite Poliakoff'swarningabout abstractart: "Paintingon the wall is fine,but keep
in mindthatthe wall itselfis no more beautifulforit."23The effortsof photography in the realm of the picturesqueappear to have paid off.Photographyhas
graduallycome to displace paintingin thisdomain; what is more, it has claimed
new subjectareas, and it has led painting,the formermistress,to give up a share
22.
Textesetphotosde Brassai et deux conversations
avec Picasso (Paris: les
George Brassai, Graffiti:
editionsdu temps,1961),p. 17.
23. Ibid.,p. 18.
.4
4
M1
d
ArnoldNewman.Wall and Ladders, Allentown,
Pennsylvania.1939.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
INS
..
in thePicturesqueTradition
ImagesofDecay:Photography
117
of her possessions.Wols, like Brassai, worked in the 1930s, photographingthe
theirfigurations
wallsand sidewalksof Paris priorto transferring
and texturesto
painting.
2. Along withthe picturesquein nature,photographydeveloped another
thematicgenre, thistime essentiallywithoutthe collaborationof painting.This
genre is devoted to thedecay of the objectsof civilization.Didn't Van Gogh write
in 1880 about a garbage can witha levered lid whichhe saw in Amsterdam:"My
God, that'sbeautiful!This collectionof covered pails, baskets,kettles,bowls,oil
cans, wire,streetlights,clay pipes. . . . For an artist,it's a paradise!"24Yet, Van
Gogh's appreciationseems not to have elicitedany lastingresponse,eitherin his
own workor in thatof otherpainters.In the 1920s and '30s, photographybegan
to devote itselfintensivelyto this repertory.The most popular leitmotifswere
scrap heaps, wreckedautomobiles,and demolishedbuildings.There was such a
24.
Cited in H. Alth6fer,"Fragment und Ruine," Kunstforum
(1977), p. 79.
lv?
?Al
nX.-A &OW
0-00::;
'zoo!
AN,
%
av
sk
Pop!,
..........M
son
J,
All AM&
..........
4W
ISO
IMF'
- ..................
SN'l
RA
:d?
kP
am?,
xm??lg?RN
OR
0,,*,`,&?',.?,??
U4,
X.:
??K'k?.
RX.
tx
Aw
-7
Ou",
I
:401
,A,\l-,N
J2Na
A29Xw
NX
IS
M"
'N'
raw
to
Al
SAMMINE
tie
v;;q
wj::
711a.
0:4,10M.S..
i140
AN-,
-xw
.6
lqW
f
WynnBullock.Old Typewriter.1951.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
5.
I
OWN
X
boom in these subjects that only an overview is possible here. Two examples
displayingtwo distinctivefeatureswill have to sufficeto illustratethis type of
"modern picturesque." Arnold Newman discoversa nearlyabstractcomposition
in the traces left behind by a demolished building on the adjacent wall of a
neighboringhouse. Wynn Bullock captures the almost morbid fascinationof a
typewriterthat has been consumed by nature. These images, as well as those
more directlyinfluencedby painterlytraditions,gladly assume the alterations
that the destructiveaction of human beingsand of nature have impressedupon
artfullyfinishedculturalobjects. In a sense, the objects are preliminarystudies
for the images. These photographerswant to show us somethingthateludes the
utilitarianeye of everydayperception.To read in theseimagesa culturalcritique
or a melancholyreflectionon the mutabilityof earthlythingsis to over-interpret
them.
3. In the past fewyears,therehave been increasingnumbersof images of
decay whose intentionis antitheticalto the approaches described thus far,yet
which displaylittledifferencein their choice of subjectsand formalstrategies.
These images,contraryto the principleof the picturesqueknownto photographers since the 1920s, do not trace the decay of the new, or of products of
industry.Neither,then, is the cycle of restorationa topic of concern in these
images. They are concerned, rather,with traces of a civilizationalready overtakenand ultimatelydoomed. Atget,who capturedthe lastremnantsof medieval
ChurchofSaint-Maclou,
Pontoise.1902.
EugeneAtget.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Paris and its destructionin a series of photographs,may be regarded as the
forefatherof thismovement.More recently,the publicationsof David Plowden
have had a decisive impact on many photographers.A 1971 collection of his
photographscalled TheHand ofMan on Americais theproductof tenyears'work.
TheHand ofMan is the name of a 1902 photographby AlfredStieglitz.It showsa
landscape of railroad tracksin a railroad yard and a locomotive energetically
spewingblack smoke as it moves toward the spectator-an image intended to
express the power of progress.In his book, Plowden depicts the decline of the
transitsystem- railroad and ship traffic-and
traditionalnineteenth-century
with
the
this
disfiguringmarkof the automobile upon the landscape.
juxtaposes
He sees our civilizationas a combinationof activedestructionand passiveneglect
of historicaland natural values. Unfortunately,nothingmore comes of his approach than an emphaticcritiqueof culture. He is not systematicenough, and
the ubiquityof the phenomenon he portraysamounts to nothingbut a reprimand. He talksabout processesbut failsto documentthem.We onlyknowfrom
marginalnotationsthatthisor thatbuilding,scene, ship,and so forthno longer
Plowden promoteshis methodof observingthe
exists.In his book Commonplace,
Americanhinterlandfroma train;and thisis typicalof his photographs- they
are testimonyto a passing interest.
Plowden's numeroussuccessorswere also more concernedwiththe melancholyappeal of decayingcultureswhichwere neverexperiencedas activeand are
always only dealt with in decline. The young photographerMarc Ghwisoland
The Hand of Man. 1902.
Alfred
Stieglitz.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
OCTOBER
120
writesof his photo serieson the Bounages, a Belgian coal regionwhose minesare
closingdown one by one: "Since thenthe landscape has grownpoorer and begun
to drowse. The young people are movingout, and what is lefthas a ghost-town
atmosphereabout it that fascinatesme."25 Karl Rainer Miller, writingin 1951
about his photographsof condemned buildings,expresses a similarsentiment:
"All these photographsare of houses that have since been pulled down; they
have been replaced by greyand, to mymind,uglyresidentialblocks. Of course,
the old houses weren't beautifuleither,but they had a fascinationfor me."26
This type of photographyof decay only disengages itselffrom a superficial
fascinationwithnostalgicrelicswhenit takesthe threatof the loss of the object so
seriouslythatit focusesitsintereston a detailed reconnaissanceand recordingof
thatobject's functionalmodes and use value - thatis, when the object comes to
be seen as a bountifulhoard of archivalmaterialabout a richpast. As an example
of this approach, Hartmut Neubauer offersa photodocumentationof a twocolliery,PoertingSiepen, threeyearsafteritsclosing. In Neuhundred-year-old
bauer's work,the distancegained throughthe dissipationof the object's function
is not a pretext for promotingthe grotesque charm of obsolescence, but an
occasion for developing a model of continuityfrom diversity,as in a didactic
scheme.
4. A fourthphotographicapproach, which will now be examined in some
detail,does not documentthe decay of objects as sole survivorsof a bygoneera,
but presentsdirt,destruction,collapse,and functionalfailureas the conditionsof
human life. This approach thereforeconformsto Ruskin's view of the picturesque not as merelyan enhancementof the aestheticcharmsof somethingmade
for human use, but as an impairmentof thatobject. The problem presentedby
this approach, however, can certainlynot be resolved through such a simple
either/or formulation.It raises a highly volatile issue in the context of art
history.Everyphotographmade witha social documentaryintenthas to assertits
intentionwithina spectrumof contradictory
possibilities.The statementmade by
a photographcan thus be most reliablyunderstood if the photographtakes an
active positiontoward whateverdetractsfromits intent.This kind of approach
presupposesknowledgeof the photographicevent and of photographichistory.
In Paul Strand's From theBridge,we have become acquainted with one such
example of applied photographichistory,and we have also seen that the impaired never negates,but, in a positivesense, can only be "superseded."
Social documentaryphotographyactuallybegan as a formof the "picturesque" thatwas produced by the industrialrevolutionat the timeof Manchestercapitalism.I do not referto the collectionsof Mayhew (1849) and Thomson/
the
Smith(1877), whichcapture in genre picturesLondon's Lumpenproletariat,
25.
26.
Camera (January 1971), p. 28.
Ibid., p. 34.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in thePicturesqueTradition
ImagesofDecay:Photography
121
poor, the outcasts,and the metropolis'smarginaltrades. The formaliconographic conceptionof Mayhew'sand Thomson/Smith'sseries of photographs,and
the motivationforit,belong to a precapitalistictraditionof imagery- the actual
industrialworker and his living conditions do not yet appear in these photographs.27At first,photographydevoted itselfto these subjectsin a mediated way
by settingits sightsupon factual circumstancespertainingto industrialworkers
and their lives. The results of labor were depicted: completed productsmachines,ships,buildingswithgroups of workersarranged in an artisticfashion
around them. The workers' home life-the most familiarafter-hoursside of
proletarianexistence- was also depicted, though far less often. More often it
was those endless rows of hastilyassembled factoryhouses in the industrial
districtsthat were the subject of these photographs.The photographerswere
probablytotallyunaware of what monotonytheirphotographswere capable of
capturing. Ruskin, who, of all the criticsof the picturesque, knew well what
belonged in a proper picture, at one point warned the amateur sketch artist
against attempting to draw these as yet unfamiliar examples of modern
architecture.
No, social documentaryphotographydeveloped in the torturouspassages
and ramshacklestructuresof the old center of the city,whichserved as the first
livingquartersforthe masses of workerspouringin fromthe country.The first
occurredin thiscontextwhen
linkingof the word socialand the wordphotograph
a descriptionof the old cityby someone writingunder a pseudonymappeared in
Glasgow in 1858 with the title MidnightScenes and Social Photographs.These
"photographs" were actually only texts, not pictures.28A perceptual style
schooled in the picturesquestillthrivedhere in the overcrowdedold citycenter,
thoughaccompanied now by the certaintythatit could not maintainits claim to
aestheticstimulationmuch longer. The early photographsof the English slums
are not that differentfromthose popular views of the narrowalleys and courtyards of the fishingvillages that on some days, according to Sutcliffe,were
teemingwithphotographers.29But it is one thingto put fishermen'swives who
were accustomed to photographersin frontof a camera, and quite another to
barge into the innermostcourtyardof a Glasgow tenement,which,normally,no
one except those who live there enters. A subject that is risky,which can not
completelybe kept at a distance,can cause a photographerto reflectupon his
methods.
Cf. W. Ranke, "Zur solzialdokumentarischen
27.
Berichte5 (1977),
Fotografieum 1900," Kritische
p. 9.
A. V. Mozley, "Introduction," in Thomas Annan, PhotographsoftheOld Closesand Streetsof
28.
Glasgow1868/1877 (New York: Dover, 1977), p. xiv.
29.
Hiley,FrankSutclife,p. 214. Compare to Streetin Whitby
(1880s) and Nancy WynneNewhall,
P. H. Emerson:The Fightfor Photography
as Fine Art(New York: Aperture, 1975), p. 225: Streetin
Yarmouth(1890s).
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
ThomasAnnan.Close No. 118, High Street.
c. 1868-77.
The firstphotographiccampaignsin the slum sectionsof Englishcitiesdid
not originatein the personal initiativeof the photographers.One must distinguish in this respect between France and England. The French photographers
(one need onlyrecall Marvilles'sdocumentationof old Paris) workedshoulderto
shoulder withnewspaperartists,engravers,and journalistsin a concertedeffort
to obtain the lastpicturesof those quartersthreatenedby demolitionand decay.
The mandate for such an endeavor was the collective one of public interest.
Hugo's The HunchbackofNotreDame had aroused the interestof Parisians not
onlyin the town'smedievalcathedralbut also in itsold squares and houses. Even
Atget and Brassai participated in this task of documentation. In England,
though,this type of photographicdocumentationcame about througha more
task-oriented,officialroute. Social pressure and the sheer weight of factual
events were relevant factorsin this development. The face of English cities
changed even fasterthan that of Haussmann's Paris. Between 1847 and 1864,
the English Parliament passed ten acts dealing with public health policy that
attemptedto bringthe catastrophichygienicconditionsin the large citiesunder
control.The Public Health Report of 1866 concluded, "It is not going too farto
say that life in manyparts of London and Newcastle is hellish."30
Capitalisticcommercialexpansion concentratedthe bulk of the workforce
in the less respectablesectionsof the old citycenterswithoutmakingany fundamentalalterationsin theirarchitecturalstructure.Everysquare meterof ground,
whichhad previouslybeen used forgardens,stalls,and, above all, forworkshops,
now served as livingquarters- if that'swhat one chooses to call the stockpiling
of human bodies in dank, stiflingcompartments.It was not unusual to find
125,000 to 250,000 people per square kilometerin these districts.The process
areas to the outskirtsof the
of resettlingpeople fromthe overcrowdedinner-city
can
be
no
doubt thatlifein conglomThere
after
was
instituted
midcentury.
city
erationsof buildingsthatsometimesdated back to the Middle Ages had become
unbearable. The "improvements,"however-as the demolitionand reconstruction of the inner citieswas called - were not institutedforpurelyhumanitarian
reasons. The new space gained in thiswaywas necessaryforthe expansionof the
cityinto outlyingareas and for the improvementof transportationlines- the
railroad,in particular.The extensionof the railroad lines throughthe centerof
old Glasgow was built withthe claim thatthisline would bringwithit "the kind
of improvementsso much needed. It willpull down the poor class of house and
ventilatethat part of the City whichis verymuch overcrowded."s1In addition,
these measures safeguarded middle-classneighborhoods from the danger of
epidemic. As far as the direct recipientswere concerned, the "improvements"
brought genuine improvementonly to a portion of workingand poor people.
30.
31.
Cited in Karl Marx, Das Kapital, vol. 1 (Frankfurt/Berlin,1969), p. 609.
Cited in Annan, StreetsofGlasgow,p. ix.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
When new apartmentswere builtto replace the old ramshacklebuildings(which,
as already indicated, was not the rule), the improved living quarters brought
higherrents,whichthe formertenantscould scarcelyafford.In any case, a large
number of inhabitantsof the inner cities had to be relocated, since the new
housing was no longer constructedas densely as the earlier buildings. Marx
could, therefore,pointedly summarize: "It is self-evidentthat every official
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
OCTOBER
124
measure concerning health conditions that . . . drove the workers from one
districtbecause of the razing of unfithousing,only served to force the workers
togetherin some other, even more congested area."32
Photodocumentationof thisprocess,whichoriginatedin 1868, also played
a part in the aporia of early capitalisticurban development. It was at thistime
that Thomas Annan was commissionedby the "Glasgow City Improvement
Trust" to photograph the courtyardsand passagewaysof Glasgow's old inner
city.Justwhat the trusteeshad in mind when theybestowed thiscommissionis
not exactly clear. It is certain that Annan did not take these photographsto
facilitateor tojustifythe large-scaledemolitionof the old citycenterby illustrating its inhuman condition. Sociological and medical inquiries,along with descriptionsby travelers,had long since identifiedthissuper-slumas the scandal of
Scotland. The Commissioner's
Reporton theSanitaryConditionof theLabouring
of
Great
Britain
went so faras to call the Glasgow slum "the
1842
Populationof
worst of any we had seen in any part of Great Britain."33In 1868, the laws
designed to implementthe "improvement"of Glasgow had alreadybeen passed;
the buildingsthatAnnan photographedhad alreadybeen condemned forrazing.
As soon as theywere gone and new structuresand streetshad taken theirplace,
interestin the photographsarose. In 1878, several copies of the series' first
edition,bound in Moroccan leather(!),were givenas giftsto cityrepresentatives.
At the same time,the Trust broughtout an editionof one hundredcopies of the
series in charcoal renderings.The primaryinterestof the photographsat this
time was as local history.Citizens of a citythat, since these photographswere
taken,now seemed "as youngas Chicago," wantedto recall again the "manyand
interestinglandmarks"-as the forwardto the 1878 edition put it.
We have onlyhisphotographsto go by in determininghow Thomas Annan,
middle-classproprietorof an establishedphotographicstudio,set about his unfamiliarassignment,and whetheror not he prevailed in imposingon the subjecta
conception differentfromone suggested by his clientswhen they granted the
commission.The preponderance of architecturein the series is striking.In the
1878 edition,onlyone picturecontainsa groupingof people whom the photographer not only tolerates,but arranges to his liking.Other than that,there are
pictures with occupants of the inner courtyardswho take advantage of the
photographer'slong preparationtimeto get into the picture.A large numberof
these figuresare blurred,whichis not surprising,consideringthe long exposure
time required in the dark, enclosed courtyards.There are also many pictures
that contain no people at all. In short,Annan's photographsdo not give the
impressionof a terriblyoverpopulatedslum;insteadwe are giventhe feelingthat
the people are there to animate the scenery. Yet, one cannot say that these
32.
Marx, Kapital, vol. 1, p. 610.
Cited in Annan, Streetsof Glasgow,p. vii. Mozley gives a veryinformativeoverviewof Glas33.
gow's urban renewal project.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in thePicturesqueTradition
ImagesofDecay:Photography
125
photos document architecturefor its own sake. There were other medieval
architecturalgems that were not rediscovered in this process. Instead, Annan
allows us to experience the volume of this gigantic living-machinethrough a
successionof manysimilarimages of deep, dark alleyways.He leaves more of the
life that is crammed into these abysses to the spectator'simaginationthan he
showsof it. Perhaps he was aware thathuman beings and theirlivingconditions
-these very intimatethings- only appear in the image in a supplementary,
almost anemic, proportion.
Annan's photographsbear no resemblanceto those popular pictureswhich
conveyed cliches of folkloriclife, nor is there any chance of Southern artistic
practice intrudinginto the gloomy back alleys of Scotland. Nor, certainly,is
Annan a sociallycritical,agitationalartist,as were the graphicartistsworkingat
thistimeforthe periodical,Graphic(establishedin 1869), and as was Dore, who,
in 1870, invokedan apocalypticvisionof London afterdark.34The strategiesof
snatchingbits of life,revealingcontraststhroughconstantchanges of scene and
perspective- in a word, thatfluiditywhichis the mostprominentcharacteristic
of sociallycriticalgraphicart of the second halfof thecentury- do not appear in
Annan's work. He composes his images on the principleof concentration,attemptingto secure the most precise recording possible even when the views
obtained are nearly identical. It must be noted here that Annan avoided the
Scylla of picturesquedepiction of the life of the poor, only to oblige the Charybdis of painterlyforms.This was the price to be paid for approaching slum
dwellings with the same documentary scrupulousness heretofore applied to
worksof art and monuments,subjects which had been Annan's specialty.
Thirty years after Annan, Zille practiced the same method in Berlin's
Kr6gel districtand consequentlyintensifiedthe issues raised by this approach.
When this sketch artist of character types went to take photographs in the
destitute Kr6gel neighborhood, it was the crumblingwalls of buildings, the
worn-outdoors and windows,the dim crannies and back alleys that interested
him. Human figuresreappear in Zille's images and are more prominentthan in
Annan's. The people who appear in the photographsseem to have so thoroughly
adapted themselvesto the drab monotonyof theirdaily environmentthatoften
one does not notice them at firstglance. The factthat Zille did not publish his
photographsleads one to the conclusionthathe used themas studiesof ambience
forhis scenes of Berlin.When we see the same architecturaldetailsin the graphic
work,we are surprisedhow ephemeral theyseem in comparisonto the impressive photographs.Zille's images seem to confirmthe positionof social documentaryphotographythatthe human conditionand the livingconditionsof individual human beings should be treated separately,as well as the claim of social
Cf. Donald Drew Egbert,Social Radicalismand theArts,WesternEurope (New York: Knopf,
34.
1970), p. 459, and P. Hogarth, The Artistas Reporter(London, 1967).
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
documentaryphotographyto the latteras its prerogative.Withouta doubtlike photographersbefore and after him (Menzel had probably already been
here)- Zille was also attractedto this neighborhoodby a fascinationwiththe
picturesque. Once again, however,one must caution against casual use of this
term.Withall his attentionto detail,Zille did not immortalizedetailsof deterioration;theysimplydid not fit,so to speak, withthe formatof his images. Zille's
deliberatelyasymmetrical,unbalanced, overlapping framingprevents unseen
things,whichthe image may suggestto the spectator,fromunfoldingspontaneously.The effectsof Zille's images did not come about arbitrarilyor by chance;
theyare the resultof his method: whatevercannot speak for itselfis recorded
fromseveral points of view.35This does not mean that the individualimage is
necessarilyless valid apart fromthe series.Rather,the method,as faras possible,
leaves its imprintin the image. The effectof thismethodis to make the theorizing of the images' tenuous relation to the overlyaestheticizedcategoryof the
picturesque the most promisingstrategyfor resolving the conflictover the
proprietaryclaims of social documentaryphotography.
In Julyand August, 1936, the authorJames Agee and the photographer
Walker Evans shared the life of three cotton farmerfamiliesin the American
of "a regionof unimaginableexistence"South. The resultof theirinfiltration
a fewhundred photographsand the book Let Us NowPraise FamousMen (1939)
35.
Cf. Ranke, "Sur sozialdokumentarischen
Fotografie,"p. 30.
HeinrichZille. Am Kr6gel.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in thePicturesqueTradition
ImagesofDecay:Photography
127
--is regarded today as a key work in the fieldof social documentary.The great
renown of this project, which, of course, also encompasses the similarlymotivated photojournalismof the otherphotographersof the Farm SecurityAdministration,should not keep us frompursuinga brief discussionrelevant to our
topicor fromstudyingthe methodsof thesedocumentaristsas exemplaryof their
school. As the introductionto his book, Agee uses a quotation froma farmer
child's grade-school primer. This passage talks about how food, shelter,and
clothing are the three essentials of human life. For Agee, this banal passage
amounts to a workingplan for his text. He reportsto us on the minutiaof the
ingredientsof the meager meals, the fewtypesof clothing,and the buildingstyle
and furnishingsof the three families' homes. It is the houses, above all, that
constitutethe undeclared central theme of the book. It is not out of fear of
emotional involvementthatAgee speaks over and over again about these things
and not about the people. In thesehouses he is able to grasp the meaningof their
life.The houses surroundhim,and in themhe becomes aware of the difficulties
of his situation- thatof the outsider,the intellectualwho has a particulartaskto
fulfill.
The tenant farmers'houses are one-storywood frames,restingon stone
foundations.The wallsare made of boards withopeningsbetweenthemthat,out
of necessity,are filledin with all kinds of materials.The roof is covered with
shingles,and the flooris made of boards. Everythingin these houses except the
oven, tableware,and iron beds is made of wood. Within these four walls, the
people are directlyexposed to all kindsof weatherconditions- pine boards that
are two centimetersthickare no protectionagainst cold, wind, heat, humidity,
and insects.And all those who live in these houses share in all the smells,sounds,
and activitiesthatgo on inside them. Connectionsto electric,water,and sewage
lines are rare here. Agee's powers of observationand sociologicalfantasydo not
overlook any functionalfailure in these wooden barracks. Yet, he speaks in a
parentheticalreflection,and almost withoutmediation,about the "beauty," as
he says,the "extraordinarybeauty" of these houses. In theirextremeeconomy,
in theirexclusiveuse of local materials,and in theirlinkwiththe primitive,local
traditionof constructingsuch houses, theymeet the standardsthat constitutea
classical building style.
To those who own and create it this "beauty" is, however,irrelevant
and undiscernible.It is best discernable to those who by economic
advantagesof traininghave onlya shamefuland thief'srightto it: and
it mightbe said thattheyhave any "rights" whateveronly in proportion as theyrecognize the uglinessand disgrace implicitin theirprivilege of perception. The usual solution,non-perception,or contempt
for those who perceive and value it, seems to me at least unwise. In
fact it seems to me necessaryto insistthat the beauty of a house,
inextricablyshaped as it is in an economic and human abomination,is
HeinrichZille. Krogelhof.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
128
OCTOBER
at least as importanta part of the factas the abominationitself:but
thatone is qualifiedto insiston thisonlyin proportionas one facesthe
brunt of his own "sin" in so doing and the brunt of the meanings,
against human beings of the abomination itself. But consider this
merelyas a question raised: for I am in pain and uncertainty.36
Agee is describinga behavioral mechanismthroughwhich the unaffected
Other in the presence of uglinessand wretchednesscan observe himself.George
Orwell, who visitedand described the English coal miningregion at the same
timeas Agee and Evans traveledSouth, wrotein The Road to WiganPier (1937),
"I findthatanythingoutrageouslystrangegenerallyends by fascinatingme even
when I abominate it."37 Orwell maintainsthat a smokingchimneyand a slum,
when looked at "from a purely aesthetic standpoint . . . may have a certain
macabre appeal." The rewardfortheseauthorsconsistsin theirhavingreflected
on theirposition.They are neithertakenin bythe superficialcharm
self-critically
of the picturesque,nor do theydeny thisaspect of theirown apperception.The
only question is whichof the consequences described by Agee followsfromthe
productionof the literaryaccount; and, of primaryinterestin the contextof this
essay,whetheror not we mayassume the same degree of consciousproblematizing on the part of Walker Evans, the photographerwho accompanied Agee.
Agee's briefremarksabout the photographicmedium deserve our attention because in them- as is often the case when viewing somethingfrom a
distancedperspective- he absolves the unfamiliarmedium in order to make a
bettercase forhis own. If one grantsthe overwhelmingsuperiorityof realityover
art, then photographycomes closest to the task of reproducingthe wealth,the
intensity,and the identityof the original "for its own, not for art's sake."
In its own realm . . . and handled cleanly and literallyin its own
terms,as an ice-cold,some wayslimited,some waysmore capable, eye,
it is, like the phonograph record and like scientificinstrumentsand
unlikeany other leverage of art, incapable of recordinganythingbut
absolute, dry truth."3
Literature,on the other hand, does not command the "language of reality"to
such a degree, nor in any comparable fashion.For thisreason, photographyhas
to free itselffrom the compulsion to want to be only documentaryand must
thereforeabsorb the subjective,reflexive,scientificappropriationof the object.
timebecause it does not have
Thus, in Agee's view,literaturehas a more difficult
thisdirectaccess to reality.But literaturealso has it easier because it can explain
36. JamesAgee and Walker Evans, Let Us NowPraise FamousMen: ThreeTenantFamilies(Boston:
Houghton Mifflin,1988), p. 203.
37.
George Orwell, The Road to WiganPier (London: Secker & Warburg, 1986), pp. 100-101.
38.
Agee, Let Us Now Praise FamousMen, p. 234.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in thePicturesqueTradition
ImagesofDecay:Photography
129
the waysrealityworksand the complex systemof interrelationsbetweenobjects.
WhetherAgee's assertion,in thisinvertedform,providesa sufficient
description
of photographyis doubtful,and seems to have confusedAgee himself.He saysin
of verbal language compared to
the passage where he declares the insufficiency
the language of reality,"For the camera, much of thisis solved fromthe start:is
solved so simply,for that matter,that this ease becomes the greatestdanger
againstthe good use of the camera.'"39That is to say, the directreproductionof
things"in theirown terms,"whichAgee regardsas the correct,suitableformof
expression for photography,cannot be established as a timeless,self-evident
norm of the medium. Even though, fromthe outside, Agee's commentaryappears in the guise of a comparativeanalysis,it makes an internalstatementby
clarifyingthe relationof his project to other formsof photographingand other
ways of reading the object (compare Agee's comments here to those quoted
above). In other words, photographymanages the extremelydifficulttask of
providingcommentaryand object in one concentratedimage, whereas the author is able to elucidate the object and his relationto it in consecutiveorder.
The onlypictureI have selectedfromthe seriesof photographsthatWalker
Evans made duringhis staywiththe tenantfarmerfamiliesshowsthe kitchenwall
in the Fields family'swooden house in Hale County,Alabama. This photograph
has,justifiably,become well known,not the least forits inclusionin the popular
series of Time-Life books, in the volume Documentary
The comPhotography.
is
as
follows:
it
mentaryaccompanying
Making the most of the finedetail that is attainableonly witha large
view camera set at a small aperture,the photographerrecorded the
spare beauty of line and texture on this rude cabin wall, where a
tenant farmer's wife has hung her meager assortmentof kitchen
utensilsagainst the rough splinteredboards.40
Does this mean that the pictureis a failure?How can a photographof a rough,
rotten,unpainted,greasykitchenwall, whichalso servesas cupboard and shelf,
automaticallycongeal into an image of "spare" or "starklyevocative beauty"
(Time-Life),indeed, "extraordinarybeauty" (Agee), when it is presentedin the
mannerthatEvans employs?Naturally,viewingthese
directand straightforward
images in retrospecttempersour perceptionof them.Today, these photographs
onlyrecall the past and no longerappeal to us fortheirown sake. Of course,the
photographercan not anticipate the way greater distance froman image will
influenceaestheticinterestin it; nor does he wantto do this.Evans's picturewas
intendedto have an effectin the present.Must one, however,completelydisqual-
39.
Ibid., p. 236.
The Editors of Time-Life Books, Documentary
40.
(New York: Time-Life Books,
Photography
1972), p. 69.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
WalkerEvans. Kitchen Wall,
Fields House. 1936.
CharlesSheeler.White Barn,
Pennsylvania.1917.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in thePicturesqueTradition
ImagesofDecay:Photography
131
ifythe mode of receptionof the waning decade of the 1930s that is adopted in
the Time-Life books?
In order to answer thisquestion, it must be determinedwhat value Evans
gave to the theme of these photographs.The photograph of the kitchenwall
belongs to an iconographic traditionthat is peculiarly American. Just as the
thatched cottage was the picturesque subject par excellence in Continentalart
and photography,so in North America it was the wooden house, the shed, the
cabin. In sayingthis,one mustadd thatAmericanphotographyis not interested
in a house as a functionalstructure,but onlyin itsdetails,whichultimatelyevoke
the crude wooden structure.Charles Sheeler initiatedthis traditionwhen he
began in the midteensto photographthe architectureof rural Pennsylvaniamore for the purpose of documenting local historyand customs than out of
aestheticmotivation.We see in Sheeler the firststudies of weather-worn,natumannerwhich
rallystressedwood, alreadyphotographedin thatstraightforward
would not become the prevailingstylefor another ten years. It may have been
these veryphotographsthat prompted AlfredStieglitzto classifythe popularly
knownSheeler along withSchambergand Strandas the mostimportantphotographers of the period following"pictorialism."
I consider the photographBarn, Lake George,taken in 1920, to be one of
Stieglitz'smost importantcontributionsto the new photography.A long succession of works on this theme, which has yet to run its course, can be traced to
Stieglitz'sphoto. There is also the veryclose study,Boards and Thistle,by Ansel
Adams, taken in 1932. Fourteen yearslater,in 1973, Adams publishedWindow,
Bear Valley,a picture of a broken window in a weather-beatenwooden wall.
Adams's photographderives unmistakablyfroma pictureby Paul Strand,Ghost
Town,Red River,takenin New Mexico in 1930. In general,thissubjectappears to
have been very popular in the 1930s. Brett Weston's famous photograph The
BrokenWindowdates from 1937.41 In 1938, Ben Shahn photographed wood
plank walls and barn windowsin the contextof his work for the Farm Security
Paul Strand worked into the war yearson veryclose, detailed
Administration.42
studies of tie-beamsand mended areas of wooden walls. Torn and tatteredtar
paper, nail-studdedlath strips,and rough lumbercome togetherin these photographs to form abstract compositions.43This survey would not be complete
withoutmentionof the fact that the signal characterthat the wall and window
motifattained throughits proliferationmade possible its use in other contexts
41. JohnSzarkowski,Lookingat Photographs
(Greenwich,Connecticut:New York GraphicSociety,
1973), p. 122. Szarkowski's claim that Weston was the firstto photograph a broken window is
invalidatedby the evidence of Strand's work.
Ben Shahn, Ben Shahn,Photographer:
An AlbumfromtheThirties,ed. Margaret R. Weiss (New
42.
York: Da Capo Press, 1973), fig.46.
Paul Strand and Nancy Newhall, Paul StrandPhotographs1915-1945 (New York: The Mu43.
seum of Modern Art, 1945), pp. 137, 141.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
OCTOBER
132
and forotherpurposes. It occurs as a framingdevice and dramaticcounterpoint,
for instance,in the action photos of WynnBullock and other photographersof
the 1950s and '60s. Co-opted by the photographeras art director,the weatherbeaten wall and window has become high kitsch.44
In his richlydetailed descriptionof farm houses, Agee has elevated the
crude wooden wall to the level of literarydistinction:
S
. . every surfacestruckby lightis thus: such an intensityand
and
splendor of silver in the silver light,seems to burn, and burns and
blindsintothe eyesalmostas snow: yetin none of thatburnishmentor
blazingwherebydetail is lost:each texturein the wood . . . is distinct
in the eye as a razor; each nail-headis distinct:each seam and split;and
each slightwarping,each random knot and knothole: and in each
board, as lovelya musicas a contourmap and unique as a thumbprint,
its grain,whichwas its livingstrength,and these wild creeks cut stiff
across by saws; movingnearer the close-laidarcs and shadows even of
those tearingwheels.45
This hymnto pine is fourpages long. Are we to imaginethat,whileAgee wrote,
Walker Evans was roamingabout these houses withhis camera? If one considers
Evans's other work,his approach to the subject of this project mightbe called
timidin comparison.He does not focus on the more or less self-evidentexpressivenessof the structureof the wood, nor on the painterlyappeal of decay, nor
on the formalecho of windowand photo frame.On the contrary,he is waryof
these facile effects.When he shows windows,doors, parts of wooden walls,it is
froma distancethatat least partiallyacknowledgesthe functionalnature of the
structure.Thus, he does not renounce the monumentalizingeffectengendered
composition,borderlessframingof objects,and right-anglepoint
by symmetrical
of view.
Yet, thiskind of compositiondoes not actuallyresultin a distancingof the
object, but in a preparationof the object towardimprovingits readability.Only
once does Evans approach his subject so closelythat the structureof the wood
begins to exert an effect,and thisis the pictureof the kitchenwall. It is on this
verypoint- wherethe apparentcontinuitybetweenEvans's workand thatof his
predecessorsand contemporariesrests-that the differencesbetween themare
foregroundedso drastically.Evans's photographappears, firstand foremost,to
be thatof a subject seen fromwithin.One can just as easilytrace the cracksand
grooves in the wood in Evans's photo as in other studiesof wood plank wallsand thisone has somethingmore: marksleftby hands reachingfor utensilsand
These examples are onlya smallsamplingfroma collectionof about fifty
44.
examples. A perusal
of American magazines for amateur photographerswould probably raise this number to infinite
proportions.
45.
Agee, Let Us Now Praise FamousMen, p. 142.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
stains where grease has splatteredduring cooking. In this case, however, the
material charms of the object have taken on the cast of the socially critical
document.Not nature,but historyhas leftitsmarkhere. In otherwords,Walker
Evans forces the spectatorinto exactlythe same bind that Agee, Orwell, and
other sociallyconsciousauthorshave describedas the dilemmaof theirposition.
Aestheticexperiences cannot and should not be excluded froman encounter
withpoverty,but such experiencesmustbe purchased at the price of a heightened awarenessand perceptionof theseconditions.The picturesquehas become
- by consciouslyimposingthe weightof the (art-) historical,
instrumentalized
one invokesthe burdensomeconditionsof the present.On reviewingthe cycleof
motifsdescribed in this essay, one is struck by how small the scope of the
photographicmedium is-it can be spanned by the thicknessof a board.
I close with a few observationson the naturalisticor "objective" tendency in photographyduringthe period between the wars by way of summarizing the argumentof thisessay. The naturalisticphotographyof thisperiod did
not actually respond in a reactionaryway to its predecessors as is generally
assumed, and as the period's own self-interpretation
suggests.Nor did it give us
"the thingitself,"withoutany relationto historyand iconography.In its most
compellingachievements,thisnaturalisticphotographyaddresses itselfto those
visual cliches and aesthetic models established by photographyand art, and
reworksthemin a productiveway--in a way thatrealizes the greateropenness
and accessibilityof a mass medium, as compared to the traditionalarts. The
example of naturalisticphotographybetween the wars may hold some interest
for the present situation. For now it seems quite obvious that photography
expects that a new beginning will come from a survey of its properties as
technologyand media ratherthan froma practicalreflectionon its history.
Paul Strand.GhostTown,Red River.1930.
This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:18:19 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions